I swallow past the lump that is forming in my throat. “I’ve missed you too. A lot.”
“I don’t like fighting with you like this. It’s not fun.”
I scoff, nodding. “It shouldn’t have been a fight. I just felt played.”
“And I shouldn’t have made you feel like that,” he says. “I didn’t mean to. I really didn’t.”
“I know. But you know me, always in my head.” I put the s’more on my knee and twirl the can in my hands, wrapping the string around my finger. “I’m sorry I blew the whole situation out of proportion.”
He shrugs. “I wouldn’t say that you did. You had valid feelings. I mean, I said thanks when you told me you loved me for the first time instead of saying what I felt, and ultimately making you feel unworthy.”
I bite the inside of my cheek. “I think it hurt my pride more than anything. I wanted so much to be loved by you.”
“Wanted?”
I look up. “Huh?”
“You said, you wanted so much to be loved by me. Has that changed?” His eyes
are clouded with pain, and my stomach hurts at the sight of it.
“No, it hasn’t changed at all.”
He looks down at his can, his glasses sliding down his nose a little bit. “That’s good. Really good.”
“I’d hope so.”
His lips turn up as he nods. When he looks at me, his heart is in his eyes. “I was so terrified to say the same thing back that I didn’t even get to enjoy how you made me feel with those three words. How you made me feel that whole night. Like I was the luckiest man on earth.”
I continue to wrap the string around my finger nervously as he holds my gaze. “It was the best night of my life.”
“Good. That’s what I wanted. I wanted you to feel loved.”
“You did?”
“I know now that I did. I may have fought that, though.”
“A little bit,” I say teasingly, and he grins as his eyes move along my face.
“I think we both fucked up here.”
“We did, but I don’t want it to ruin us.”
“No, it hasn’t. At least not for me.”
“Same.” My heart starts to flutter in my chest, knowing we’re both on the same page. Then I remember something. “I listened to the song.”
He furrows his brow. “The song?”
“The one you picked for me,” I say as my eyes start to fill with tears. “‘Falling in Love’?”
He lets his head fall back, groaning. “The girls told you.”
“They did.”
Asher brings his head back up, and he’s grinning. “Sorry, it wasn’t a Jonas Brothers song.”
I grin back. “It’s actually better.”